Outfit of the evening & Zucca Plymouth mini restuarant review

Hey guys, Sophie here J

I’ve been more ill this weekend than I think I've ever been in my life! I've ached all over, had the worst headache, my face felt like it had been punched repeatedly, my nose can no longer be used for breathing, etc. etc. So I’ve spent most of my weekend lying in the same position trying to keep living. Today I have finally summoned the strength to sit upright and type so I thought I’d come and do a little bit of blogging to cheer me up. I promise this post isn’t just a tale of woe, I’ve got a little outfit of the evening for you.

This was from a few weeks ago when my boyfriend and I had a little dinner date. Usually we’ll just go to the cinema or for a pub meal or a Nandos or something, so as we hadn’t done it in a while, we decided to go all out and really dress up and pick a nice place to stuff ourselves silly. As you may have guessed I did not pick appropriate attire for this.

My dress is from Warehouse and was a gift from my dad quite a while ago now. Warehouse may be my all time favourite place for occasion dresses – I would never spend hundreds of pounds on a dress and the Warehouse ones are still quite pricey but justifiably so for birthdays and such as they’re excellent quality and always feel so special. The one I’m wearing here is a silvery metallic grey, almost like a shiny gunmetal colour which is brilliant as metallics are always popping back on trend for most seasons. The neck and chest area is made up of dark embroidered beads (none of which have fallen off) on black lace, which is repeated around the waist, and there’s a bow at the back in the silver colour. Like most Warehouse dresses, it fits like a dream (at least it does before your 5 course meal!), it’s a lovely length and there’s a lovely scoop type thing going on at the back. I think every girl deserves a pretty, sparkly, go-to dress like this for when you want to feel extra special. As the dress was the star of the show I paired it with my very pretty (very high) nude wedges and matching nude clutch (on the piano seat) from New Look and kept jewellery to a minimum with a few bracelets, stud earrings and my watch.

I must apologise for the pictures here (or lack of). I did take loads but during the process of transferring them from my camera card to my laptop they got deleted by forces unknown L These are the only two that survived!

 

  My boyfriend donned a pair of dark brown suit trousers and a white shirt for the occasion, with some shoes and a grey tailored coat. We’d asked around our friends for recommendations on a good restaurant, I wanted to go to the Barbican which is one of my favourite parts of Plymouth. In the end we chose Zucca as a few people had good things to say about it. I’m not entirely sure whether Zucca is on the Barbican itself or the harbour next to it, but we sat by the window and had lovely views of the boats on the water regardless. The restaurant itself is very well presented, it’s quite snazzy looking but there’s a lovely atmosphere as the staff were so friendly. There weren’t many people in, just a few other tables and although I usually prefer restaurants to be a little busier, I don’t feel like this hurt the vibe at all. It also meant that the staff were extra attentive to us and we were never left with an empty glass or finished plate. The food was amazing, all really well presented and delicious, and the portions were huge! We ordered appetisers, starters, main courses and a desert not realising that they give you breads to start off with too, so we had gained about twice our body weights before we left and ended up taking most of our mains home with us. All in all we had such a lovely evening, we couldn’t fault the service at all and the food was delicious, I strongly recommend Zucca if you’re ever in Plymouth wondering where to go for a meal.

Click here for more information about Zucca and menus and such. 

 I think that’s all folks, thank you for reading! I was going to do a more detailed restaurant review but I didn’t know how interesting that would be and I forgot to take pictures of the food L (too busy eating it!) but I hoped you enjoyed reading anyway. Do let me know if you’ve been to any nice restaurants lately as we’re always looking for new places to go!

Love you lots

Sophie xxx

Don't Dream It, Be It.

As the title suggests, I went to The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Friday evening with Rosie, Maisy, Hannah and Rosie O and her pal, Phil. It was such a good time, and half of the fun came with getting ready for it! The show started at an awkward time at 5, so getting dressed up was a bit of a quick affair but I guess it didn't really matter what you looked like at the end of it, anything goes. 

I don't have too many photos of my outfit, like I said it was a bit of a rush getting ready, but I wore a mini, black, one shouldered playsuit from Topshop which I got a few years ago for £40. If you wanted a similiar one then click here (: I also wore a pair of lace leggings and black wedges which I got from Primark. 

For my hair, I simply placed it up in a bun and left my fringe down, simple! 

Above is all the products I used to achieve my make up. 

From Left to Right (Top-Bottom): High Lights by Technic, Shade 1 and Shade 11 by MUA Undressed Palette, 168 angled blush brush and 239 eyeshadow brush by MAC Make It Perfect Special Edition Brush Kit, POREfessional by Benefit, Sunset Glow Blushing Blush Blusher by Clinique, Velvet Wine Lipstick by NYC, Liquid Eyeliner, DiorShow Mascara by Dior, and Extra Virgin Minerals Liquid Foundation in shade 105/Rose Ivory. 

Eyes: To prep, I put a fingertip of Porefessional onto my lids, not only does this minimise my pores, it works as a great primer. For my eyes I swept Shade 1 from the Undressed Palette all across my lid and blended it all the way up to my brow bone, making sure it lightened the higher it got. I then patted Shade 11 into the crease of my lid and blended as much as I could and joined the outer of my eye to the top lash line to create a wing shape. I then brushed on a medium thick line of liquid eyeliner and then followed the wing shape I created with the eye shadow. I put on several coats of mascara on my top and lower lashes and penned a mini heart just under my left eye!

Nails: I got my nail wraps from Primark, they were reduced to 50p. They are orginally only £1 though so they're definitely a steal. This was my first time with nail wraps (I know, where have I been) so it was a bit of a fiddle to begin with but they're pretty easy once you get the hang of it. All you have to do is warm up the stickers in your palms, cut out the stencil that is a suitable size for your nail, take off the wrap and stick on as neatly as you can. My nails are quite slim so some of the wraps were way to big so I had to trim them, but there was also some abnormaly small wraps too but I can't make too much of a fuss for 50p!

Lips: I wanted a really dark eye/lip combo for the evening so I managed to bag myself a bargain earlier in the week. I got my first NYC lipstick from the local Lloyds Pharmacy for £1.49.

It's from their Ultra Lasting collection in 'Velvet Wine'.

 In the tube, Velvet Wine looks much of a coffee colour but don't be fooled! This lipstick is actually more of a deep bodied berry colour. 

So, straight away you can see this goes on a little patchy, but the colour is absolutely gorgeous and really pigmented. I've searching for my signature lip for ages and i've trowled through many pinks, red and colours but I think this is definitely the one. The dark wine coloured lipstick really suits my complexion and hair colour. Apparantly, this is an 'ultra lasting' colour. When I wore this on the night it did last all evening (I didn't eat or drink much though), however I've wore it since and as I've eaten/drank it's come off and left a sort of stain.

It's a matte lipstick, there's definitely no sheen or gloss that comes along with this lipstick but for £1.49, it does its job. But for a matte lip, it is quite silky instead of feeling heavy and cakey. 

 Application wise, I found it much easier to use a lip brush instead of just gliding it straight on because it is very patchy and it just needs some extra care to be blended in. I'm not going to compain too much though because it's a really inexpensive lipstick and it does what you pay for at the end of the day.

Pro's 

• Stupidly afforadable.
• Lasts on average 3-4 hours which is fine for a night out (just take it with you, just in case!)
• Silky and smooth to apply.
• A good dark lipstick for pale skin! 
• Highly pigmented.

Con's 

• Transfers when eating and drinking.
• Patchy, remember to blend in!
• Isn't 'Ultra Lasting' and it definitely doesn't last up to/longer than 6 hours.

Overall I had a lovely, lovely night with my beautiful freaks and I can't wait to go again!

XXX

Outfit of the night - little black dress x

Happy New Year everyone!!

I'm back at my home in Plymouth now after one of the best Christmases ever in the West Midlands with my friends and family! I spent far too much time and money in Costa, at the pub, shopping, eating and drinking but I'm certainly not complaining - hope you all loved it as much as I did. 

 

 

 I'm also back at uni as of today, although I'm yet to get back into the swing of things as I think I spent more time asleep during my lectures than I did awake. Never a good start when you're sat directly infront of the lecturer and keep snorting yourself awake as your elbow slips off the desk... I also have deadlines this week and next (boo) but I thought I'd slip a cheeky outfit post in for you x

The flash caught my eyes in a really interesting way here(!) and no amount of editing will get rid of it, sorry! I also had my eyes closed in pretty much every single other picture I had taken, if you can ignore my face I think this one shows the shape of the dress quite well. I wore this outfit on New Year's Eve, not too in your face but you can't go wrong with a little black dress. Mine was £15 from Topshop a while ago, it has a vest style top, really tight on the waist and then flares out skater-style at the bottom, loved it so much I also have it in red.  I found this  one from Boohoo, pretty much exactly the same (although mine doesn't have a belt), even cheaper (£12!), and available in way too many colours to choose from. 

Maya Scoop Neck Skater Dress, £12, Boohoo.com

My shoes were a recent investment from New Look (£49.99), as discussed here. 

 These ones on the website are almost identical, though the heel is a bit different to mine and they've crept up to £64.99 :(

Blink Black Platform Lace Up Shoeboots, £64.99, New Look.

I was only off to my local pub so I didn't want to be over-dressed, I threw on a leather jacket similar to this one to relax it all a bit:

Kept my accessories simple with a rose gold watch from Michael Kors (21st birthday gift) and my lacy black clutch was also a gift.

Welllll thank you for reading, back to essay writing for me! Or maybe I should bake some cupcakes first, priorities.

 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

outfit of the night (casual)

I've been going out quite a bit recently, making the most of my time at home in Sedgley before heading back to Plymouth for the next term of uni! Me and Jenn have been shopping like lunatics this week, so check back for reviews on what we got! Here I am last night ready to go for a few casual drinks at my local pub:

Coat: £10, New Look sale, shoes: £49.99, New Look, Jeans: £20, Miss Selfridge sale

I am in love with this beautiful boyfriend style coat that I spotted (okay Jenn spotted) in the New Look sale! It's a size 12 but I think the fit on me is just right as I like things like coats to be a little baggy. 

It was originally £49.99 but on sale for £10! Runnnn to your nearest New Look because this was the last one left in the store I was in, but look at these beautiful alternatives I have found you... Click the pictures!

Burgundy Melton coat, £20, down from £49.99, New Look website.

Black notch collar Melton coat, £22 down from £49.99, New Look website.

Because the coat has such a masculine fit, I put it with the skinniest high waist jeans from Miss Selfridge, £20 in their sale a while ago but there are some similar ones in darker colours on sale here.

 My shoes are also new, from New Look again but sadly not on sale. They were £49.99 which is more than I would usually spend on shoes, but they are real suede and so gorgeous. They remind me a lot of Jeffery Campbell Litas, they have a similar shape and style but without the huge platform (or price tag!!). 

Jeffrey Campbell Lita black platform ankle boot in suede, £120 from Office.

My New Look alternatives, £49.99

I wore a sheer chiffon top with cutout back for a bit of a feminine touch, with a black New Look bralet underneath. 

And my lacy black clutch bag was a gift :)

Happy shopping!

Sophie x